SUNDAY, JUNE 8, 2008

COMING MONDAY

THE MIDDLEMAN ROUNDUP

Javier Grillo-Marxuach, creator and executive producer of ABC Family's The Middleman, said the idea to cast Wendy Watson as a Latina came from the network.

"I don't know, for whatever reason, that wasn't part of my original conception of it," Grillo-Marxuach said. "And, obviously, being Puerto Rican and thinking that it's a pretty swell thing to have Latinos in television in heroic and featured positions, I embraced that and went along with it.

"So the casting search was immediately determined by certain things like can we find somebody who can actually get through this dialogue without wanting to kill me and find somebody who is also going to portray the warmth and character of Wendy and, at the same time, give us a certain number of things and as well be Latina. So, already the parameters sort of drew themselves around the project."

Grillo-Marxuach said the process to cast Wendy was lengthy, ending with Natalie Morales getting the role for the series, which premieres on ABC Family on Monday, June 16 at 9 p.m.

"We're pretty lucky that Natalie came across our doorstep," he said.

In other The Middleman news:

* Grillo-Marxuach and members of the cast will be appearing at Comic-Con International in San Diego next month. There will be a panel and a signing.